From Gonzaga to Kentucky, here's a look at UNC's non-conference basketball schedule

A first-ever home game versus Gonzaga and a neutral-site contest against Kentucky highlight North Carolina’s non-conference schedule, which the school announced Monday.

The Tar Heels will also play a Thanksgiving tournament in Las Vegas, and open the season on the road for consecutive games for the first time since the 1986-87 season. UNC will host Mount Olive in an exhibition (date TBA), before opening the regular season at Wofford on Nov. 6 and Elon on Nov. 9. Wofford upset the Tar Heels on Dec. 20 in Chapel Hill last season, 79-75. UNC will be the first opponent in Elon’s brand new Schar Center.

Carolina will host Gonzaga on Dec. 15, the fourth meeting between the two schools. The last time the two teams met was in the 2017 NCAA title game in Phoenix.

The Tar Heels will take on Kentucky in the fifth annual CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 22 in Chicago, the first meeting between the schools since the Heels defeated the Wildcats, 75-73, in the 2017 NCAA South Region final on a game-winning shot from Luke Maye.

UNC also gets to return to Las Vegas to play in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational. The 2018 field includes North Carolina, Michigan State, Texas and UCLA. The games, which will be played at Orleans Arena, are Nov. 22, Thanksgiving Day, and Nov. 23. The pairings will be released this summer.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams will take on a pair of former assistants next season as well. Stanford, led by Jerod Haase, will play in the Dean Dome on Nov. 12, and C.B. McGrath and UNC-Wilmington will play in Chapel Hill on Dec. 5. Haase and McGrath both played for Williams at Kansas and were on his staff at UNC.

The Tar Heels end their non-conference slate with home games against Davidson (Dec. 29) and Harvard (Jan. 2) before opening Atlantic Coast Conference play the weekend of Jan. 5-6.

This story was originally published April 16, 2018 at 1:02 PM with the headline "From Gonzaga to Kentucky, here's a look at UNC's non-conference basketball schedule."